Juba (AFP)

Authorities in South Sudan and the NGO Okay Africa Foundation have launched a campaign for condom use as part of a sex education campaign in the country devastated by six years of civil war.

In the southern Sudanese village where Andrew Makech lives near Rumbeck in central South Sudan, few people have heard of condoms, and addressing this issue would be taboo.

Andrew Makech, 35, on Saturday joined several hundred people in Juba, the capital, to test for AIDS and learn how to use condoms to fight the disease, on the occasion of a campaign that precedes World AIDS Day, Sunday.

In the country, about 200,000 people are infected with HIV in a population of 12 million. But few people protect themselves against AIDS or carry out screening tests. Only 10 percent of South Sudanese infected with the virus benefit from antiretroviral therapy, according to the World Health Organization.

"People who use condoms are considered prostitutes," said Makesh to AFP. "In my village, people do not know condoms, and if you tell your girlfriend that you need a condom, you may already have insulted her."

At the launch of the campaign at Kampala University in Juba, members of the NGO explain how to use male and female condoms. Students listen carefully to explanations and take pictures with their mobile phones. Five thousand condoms have been distributed.

In South Sudan, "condom use is synonymous with immorality, people think condoms are used for (...) extra-marital sex," said Data Emmanuel Gordon, Okay Africa Foundation, which hopes to change mentalities.

In recent testing, five out of every hundred soldiers tested positive for HIV, according to Chris Isa of the South Sudan AIDS Commission.

South Sudan sank into civil war in 2013, two years after its independence from Sudan, when President Kiir, a Dinka, accused his former vice president Riek Machar, a member of the Nuer ethnic group, from fomenting a coup. State.

The conflict, marked by mass atrocities, has made an estimated 380,000 deaths and forced 4 million people to flee their homes.

© 2019 AFP